As some of you know my old skimmer died and I was fortunate enough to borrow a loaner from a few people on the ARC till I got my new skimmer in. Well, I got my Octopus Extreme skimmer in a few weeks ago from reef speciality... those guys are top notch btw. They stayed in constant contact with us and shipped these things on a special shipment just for us at their cost... That's amazing service. Anyways, I wasn't sure which way to go with a new skimmer so I picked Mufret's mind as he's an equipment guru of sorts :). His thoughts on this skimmer is that it is the best bang for your buck... and I have to agree.

Anyways, I just recently installed it. Here's a pic of it after giving it a good wash. It's got a small footprint and fits really easily under the stand. It appears to be about 8x8x23. The build quality looks to be superb. Its nice thick cell cast acrylic and I can't find a flaw in it anywhere. The pump is the same sicce pump that you find on some of the most expensive skimmers out on the market.

It's only been running for a few days and WOW... this thing is quieter than any of my older skimmers and creates an amazing amount of bubbles and skimmate. I can see why the bubblemasters and new tunze doc skimmers use this same pump... The skimmer is easy to tune and I find I can easily go from wet skimmate to dry without having to do a gate mod. This skimmer also has the added flexibility of using either the mesh wheel or the flexible needle wheel. I tried both the needle wheel and the mesh wheel and its not even close... the mesh wheel makes so many more super fine bubbles. I imagine for smaller tanks the needle wheel would be sufficient but seeing the solid block of tiny air bubbles in the skimmer makes the mesh mod worth it. It looks like there's absolutely no water in the skimmer at all... its just all bubbles.

Anyways, I'm sure I'll run into some flaws and downsides to this skimmer eventually and I'll keep you guys updated. So far so good though...

kwl1763

08-18-2008, 4:11 PM

That setup with the pump underneath is really sweet and really allows it to have a small horizontal print. I've heard nothing but good things about them!

FutureInterest

08-26-2008, 1:34 PM

Quick lil update: I found a few lil negatives.

This skimmer comes with both the needlewheel and the meshwheel. The meshwheel pulls amazing amounts of air but I find that the pump won't restart on its own. I came home the other day to find that the pump was barely doing anything. I had to pull the pump up to the air so that it could get enough air in it to start turning on its own. Kind of annoying so I hooked it into one of my many battery backups. The flexible needlewheel impeller has no such startup issues though but it doesn't pull nearly as much air so I'm not using it. I'm not sure if its just my meshwheel though or not... They're sending me a new one to try out.

Another lil thing that I did was dremel a lil notch in the side of the base. This allowed the air tubing to get to the pump unimpeded. Otherwise there was a lil kink in the tubing which just didn't seem very efficient :P.

I'm still exceedingly impressed with the skimmer's overall performance though. The chamber is so jammed full of the tiniest lil bubbles it looks like the skimmer is full of whole milk. It pulls gunk out reliably and was easy to tune.

JAustin

09-17-2008, 8:48 AM

I just bought one of these. It will be here Friday. I can't wait to get this bad boy up and running. Have you had the new mesh wheel sent to ya?

Any more info on how you like it so far?

Amici

09-17-2008, 9:49 AM

JIN!!! you have a skimmer review and no pics of the skimmer in action?!?! COME ON!!! lol

FutureInterest

09-17-2008, 11:22 AM

Lol. I'll get a pic up later tonight.

As for the update:
The new meshwheel wasn't necessary I just trimmed the old one and balanced it out. I still have the new one though which will I'll swap in when the current one looses its oompf. Now it restarts like a champ without any issues. It's truly plug and play and skims really well.

One other positive that I didn't touch is that its quiet. You can barely hear this thing and you might think it wasn't working except you see the huge head of foam. My last few skimmers were much louder in comparison and you could even hear them through the stand, which I always found to be irritating but I accepted the loud noise as a necessity.

FutureInterest

11-03-2008, 10:01 PM

Thought I would go ahead and link a vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0) of it in action.

sailfish

11-03-2008, 10:14 PM

Say What? Wrong video or you got me one or the other.

Joe

glxtrix

11-03-2008, 10:20 PM

BAHHHHHHH you've been Rick Roll'd﻿ !!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

photokid

11-03-2008, 10:21 PM

nice video man top notch

Chemically_Balanced

11-03-2008, 10:43 PM

Have to admit. You got me too Jin.

FutureInterest

11-05-2008, 12:08 PM

:)

sailfish

11-05-2008, 1:25 PM

:showoff: :tongue2:

stacy22

03-13-2009, 8:50 PM

Update Jin?????? I may be taking the Octopus plunge soon.

Eddie

08-15-2009, 8:47 PM

How is the skimmer doing Jin?

Amici

08-15-2009, 8:58 PM

Jin is MIA with work and family stuff last I heard. I saw this thing in action. It was impressive.

blu_devl_06

08-15-2009, 9:09 PM

That vid was hilarious!! he does look familiar though, does he have a lot of high end nano's that he keeps for 3 or 4 months each, then sells?:lol2:Way to go Ace!!

Ralph ATL

08-15-2009, 9:10 PM

Yeah, last time he logged on was April 30, 2009.

MvM

08-15-2009, 9:20 PM

Thought I would go ahead and link a vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0) of it in action.
I guess that crap got through him skimmer!